The Pentagon’s pizza index spiked before Israel’s opening strike against Iran

Pentagon Pizza Report, an X account that tracks pizza parties at America’s military HQ via open-source data, reported a huge spike in pizza orders on Thursday evening👆.

The surge came about an hour before Iranian state TV first reported explosions in Tehran, as Israel carried out an operation targeting Iranian nuclear and military sites, as well as Iran's top military officials and nuclear scientists (how they did it).

The idea behind the pizza tracker: That during times of crisis, US officials order more pizza due to being stuck at the office. Pizza deliveries to the Pentagon reportedly doubled right before the US invasion of Panama in December 1989, and surged again before Operation Desert Storm in 1991.

Was America involved? The US publicly opposed any Israeli attack on Iran prior to it being carried out, and has since distanced itself from Israel’s operation.

• However, two Israeli officials told Axios that President Trump had knowledge of the operation and was only pretending to oppose an Israeli attack in public, with the goal of convincing Iran no attack was imminent, and to ensure that Iranians on Israel's target list wouldn't move to new locations.

Zoom out: Israel and Iran traded strikes over the weekend, with Israel‘s air force reportedly achieving freedom of operation over Tehran's airspace. At least 14 have been killed in Israel, while 244 have been killed in Iran (mostly civilians), according to the country’s health ministry.